And the “Dispatches from the Set” of “The Walking Dead” continue with this week’s installment being a two-part report from the set of the series. The focus is on Andrew Lincoln, who portrays Rick Grimes, along with a few comments from Laurie Holden (Andrea) and special FX makeup artist Greg Nicotero. Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

On a misty morning 40 miles outside of Atlanta, actor Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes on “The Walking Dead”, stands beneath a tent on set. Behind him lies a Victorian farmhouse that will constitute a major setting within the show’s second season, but today the action will be taking place in a valley below, where the show’s production designer Greg Melton has built a menacing structure of splintered wood and rusted metal that looks like it’s been sitting in that spot for 100 years. (In fact, the barn was constructed for the series out of brand-new material.)

Lincoln and the rest of the cast are psyching themselves up for what’s to come: a major action scene that will be the culmination of Season 2’s first main story arc. Standing in a distant field, Jon Bernthal, who plays Rick’s partner, Shane, listens to his iPod, bouncing back and forth on his feet and jabbing his fists in the air, Rocky-style.

Lincoln, too, is listening to his iPod — a “Rick Grimes Mix” filled with country artists like Waylan Jennings to whom, he imagines, his character would enjoy listening. He speaks with a Southern drawl even when the cameras aren’t rolling, and his voice is hoarse from yesterday’s rehearsals, in which both he and Jon Bernthal had to scream at each other again and again. “I told Jon if we haven’t lost our voices by the end of the day, we haven’t done our jobs,” he says, “so we’re having a contest.”

Lincoln looks different from the Rick Grimes we met in Season 1. He’s eschewed his sheriff’s uniform for a dark green button-up and black jeans (although the utility belt with his now-infamous “Python” revolver remains safely secured around his waist.) His hair is also longer, as is his beard. When the disheveled, bearded Rick from later issues of Robert Kirkman’s comic is mentioned, he nods knowingly. “Growin’ my beard, growin’ my hair,” he says, “depending on how much time passes between seasons, it’ll get even longer.” He hands off his gun to Clayton Neuman (author of the piece), and Neuman is surprised at how heavy it is. “That’s why Rick always grimaces when he fires it,” Lincoln jokes.

Next Neuman walks over to Laurie Holden, who plays Andrea in the show and is being misted with water to simulate sweat. Come the afternoon, when temperatures on the farm will reach 102 degrees, such measures will no longer be necessary. But for now the make-up break gives him an opportunity to ask her about what lies ahead today for Andrea.

“I’m excited. It’s time for Andrea to get it together and stop crying over Amy,” she says, referencing her character’s sister — killed in Season 1. Neuman asks her about a particularly gory walker confrontation she filmed earlier for Season 2, and for a moment she’s baffled. “That feels like a totally different life, Andrea’s changed so much. She used to be all…” Here Holden raises her arms, rolls her eyes back and screams disorientedly. Now, she says, when she sees a walker, it’s just something to kill.

It’s 8AM now, and two vans approach the set: the day’s scheduled 21 walkers have arrived. They range from background extras — for whom the make-up is less comprehensive — to featured zombies whose roles are integral to the plot (Think Season 1’s Bicycle Girl or Morgan’s wife) to stunt zombies, for whom an arsenal of 150 “squibs” — miniature explosives designed to mimic a gunshot wound — are awaiting for the day’s festivities.

The zombies — along with “The Walking Dead”‘s Special FX Makeup Guru Greg Nicotero and his team from KNB FX — have been working since 3AM to be ready to shoot at first light. At 5AM the episode’s director Michelle MacLaren enters the makeup trailer to give notes on a featured zombie. “I think it’s important her face isn’t too horrific-looking,” Nicotero tells Andy Schoenberg, one of the makeup artists. MacLaren chimes in that it would be good if her face had some scratches on it so the CG artists know where to place the gunshot wound.

For Season 2 Nicotero has enhanced the zombie make-ups to emphasize the decay the creatures are going through. This means accentuating cheekbones and brow to give the extras sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. The prosthetics that create this effect are called “Lone Rangers” because they’re applied as a bandit-like face mask.

“I look like my Aunt Fae who runs the Pentecostal church in Brunswick,” Amber, the aforementioned walker, says after her Lone Ranger is in place.

“You look like a cross between Winona Ryder and Uma Thurman,” Nicotero corrects as he puts the finishing touches on another zombie.

“You look more dead,” he tells a second zombie, whose hair has been given a healthy dose of conditioner to make it look greasy. “You don’t look quite as handsome.”